Latest news with #EileenONeillBurke
The Independent
5 days ago
- The Independent
Prosecutors won't charge Chicago officers who fired nearly 100 times during a deadly traffic stop
Five Chicago police officers from a tactical unit who fired their guns nearly 100 times during a 2024 traffic stop that killed a 26-year-old man won't face criminal charges, prosecutors announced Wednesday. 'The decision is not reached lightly nor does it diminish the tragedy that occurred," Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke said at a news conference. 'But to the question of whether the officers committed a crime under the Illinois Criminal Code, the answer is straightforward: They did not.' The shooting that killed Dexter Reed, a Black man, raised questions about the use of force and the role of tactical officers who were involved. In Reed's case, the officers were dressed in plainclothes and drove unmarked cars as they surrounded Reed's SUV on March 21, 2024. Reed fired first, which Burke said was part of the 'clear and overwhelming evidence' that led her to decide against pursuing charges. One officer was injured. Burke said Reed fired 11 rounds in two bursts with a gun he obtained illegally. The officers shot back 96 times, even after Reed left the vehicle, fell to the ground and lay motionless. One officer alone fired 50 shots. Reed was hit 13 times, including on his legs and chest, according to the Cook County medical examiner. The shooting and Reed's death happened within roughly one minute. Police have released little and at times conflicting information about what prompted the traffic stop. Initially police said officers had pulled Reed over for not wearing a seat belt. Later city attorneys said it was due to illegally tinted windows. Messages left Wednesday for the Chicago Police Department and the police union were not immediately returned. The officers were placed on administrative leave. Community activists called for them to be fired immediately in the killing of another young Black man. Reed's family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit, alleging 'brutally violent' policing tactics, and have called for the city to work harder to comply with a court-supervised reform plan prompted by a 2014 police shooting where officers shot Black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. Reed was a former high school and college basketball player with ambitions of being a sportscaster. Family remembered him as a kind, caring person who had experienced recent health problems, including recovering from a 2021 shooting, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The family alleged that the officers didn't properly identify themselves as police during the West Side traffic stop; lacked reasonable suspicion to stop Reed; escalated the situation by immediately drawing guns, blocking his vehicle and shouting profanity-laced commands; and failed to provide timely medical care as Reed lay in the street. Family members were disappointed in the decision not to file charges, according to attorney Andrew Stroth, who represents Reed's family. 'We will continue to fight for justice,' Stroth said in a statement. 'This case is about the pattern and practice of unconstitutional actions by tactical units within the Chicago Police Department.' Chicago police have declined to comment specifically on investigation of the shooting. But they have generally addressed the work of the tactical officers, saying such units have been part of each district's patrol for years. They are generally sent to areas with high crime patterns, working in uniform and sometimes in street clothes. Burke said her office would not address questions on policing. 'It is not this office's role to examine or cast judgment on police tactics,' she said.
Associated Press
5 days ago
- Associated Press
Prosecutors won't charge Chicago officers who fired nearly 100 times during a deadly traffic stop
CHICAGO (AP) — Five Chicago police officers from a tactical unit who fired their guns nearly 100 times during a 2024 traffic stop that killed a 26-year-old man won't face criminal charges, prosecutors announced Wednesday. 'The decision is not reached lightly nor does it diminish the tragedy that occurred,' Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke said at a news conference. 'But to the question of whether the officers committed a crime under the Illinois Criminal Code, the answer is straightforward: They did not.' The shooting that killed Dexter Reed, a Black man, raised questions about the use of force and the role of tactical officers who were involved. In Reed's case, the officers were dressed in plainclothes and drove unmarked cars as they surrounded Reed's SUV on March 21, 2024. Reed fired first, which Burke said was part of the 'clear and overwhelming evidence' that led her to decide against pursuing charges. One officer was injured. Burke said Reed fired 11 rounds in two bursts with a gun he obtained illegally. The officers shot back 96 times, even after Reed left the vehicle, fell to the ground and lay motionless. One officer alone fired 50 shots. Reed was hit 13 times, including on his legs and chest, according to the Cook County medical examiner. The shooting and Reed's death happened within roughly one minute. Police have released little and at times conflicting information about what prompted the traffic stop. Initially police said officers had pulled Reed over for not wearing a seat belt. Later city attorneys said it was due to illegally tinted windows. Messages left Wednesday for the Chicago Police Department and the police union were not immediately returned. The officers were placed on administrative leave. Community activists called for them to be fired immediately in the killing of another young Black man. Reed's family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit, alleging 'brutally violent' policing tactics, and have called for the city to work harder to comply with a court-supervised reform plan prompted by a 2014 police shooting where officers shot Black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. Reed was a former high school and college basketball player with ambitions of being a sportscaster. Family remembered him as a kind, caring person who had experienced recent health problems, including recovering from a 2021 shooting, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The family alleged that the officers didn't properly identify themselves as police during the West Side traffic stop; lacked reasonable suspicion to stop Reed; escalated the situation by immediately drawing guns, blocking his vehicle and shouting profanity-laced commands; and failed to provide timely medical care as Reed lay in the street. Family members were disappointed in the decision not to file charges, according to attorney Andrew Stroth, who represents Reed's family. 'We will continue to fight for justice,' Stroth said in a statement. 'This case is about the pattern and practice of unconstitutional actions by tactical units within the Chicago Police Department.' Chicago police have declined to comment specifically on investigation of the shooting. But they have generally addressed the work of the tactical officers, saying such units have been part of each district's patrol for years. They are generally sent to areas with high crime patterns, working in uniform and sometimes in street clothes. Burke said her office would not address questions on policing. 'It is not this office's role to examine or cast judgment on police tactics,' she said.
CBS News
5 days ago
- CBS News
Chicago police officers won't be charged with a crime in Dexter Reed shooting death
Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke announced Wednesday that the Chicago police officers who killed Dexter Reed last year during shootout in Humboldt Park will not face any criminal charges. "What happened that evening was a tragedy. A young life ended, a police officer was shot with a potentially career-ending injury, and many other lives were upended. An entire neighborhood was traumatized," Burke said. "In this case, the evidence is clear and overwhelming that we would not be able to meet our burden and secure convictions. Therefore we will not be any of the police officers who were involved in this incident." Video released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability – which investigates all police shootings – shows Reed, 26, shot an officer after failing to comply with orders to roll down his window after he was pulled over on March 21, 2024. Police returned fire, with officers firing a total of 107 shots at Reed in 41 seconds, killing him, according to O'Neill Burke. Both Reed's family and COPA have raised questions about why a team of five plain-clothed tactical officers pulled over Reed to begin with. In a federal lawsuit against the city and the officers, Reed's mother claimed the traffic stop targeting her son was "unlawful and pretextual," and was the result of traffic stop quotas CPD imposes on officers. "Officers had no reasonable suspicion that Dexter violated any law, and they falsely stated otherwise in official CPD reports," the lawsuit claims. Former COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten, who stepped down in February, has said the officers involved claimed they noticed Reed wasn't wearing a seat belt, but she has questioned how they could have seen that through his vehicle's tinted windows. In April, the City Council Finance Committee rejected a recommendation from the city's attorneys to settle the Reed family's lawsuit for $1.25 million, meaning the lawsuit will now go to trial. COPA's investigation into the officers' actions remains open. The video above is from a previous report.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Measure before Gov. JB Pritzker would streamline firearms ID process for low-level gun offenders
On the final day of the spring legislative session, the Democrat-led Illinois General Assembly passed a measure intended to make it easier for people who have been arrested for carrying guns illegally to obtain a state firearm permit so they would be allowed to own firearms. The bipartisan bill marked a rare instance in which Democrats and Republicans largely agreed on a measure involving guns. Democrats have been criticized by the GOP for promoting measures that restrict the flow of guns to the point where they negatively affect law-abiding gun owners. But Democrats say this legislation, which awaits Gov. JB Pritzker's signature, encourages the legal ownership of firearms while still emphasizing accountability. 'Getting guns off the streets, yes, absolutely, to me that means stopping the flow of illegal weapons into our streets. That means keeping weapons out of the hands of people who wish to do harm,' said state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a Chicago Democrat who supports the bill. 'That doesn't mean preventing people from owning a tool that is used for both personal protection and sport.' The legislation applies to participants in diversion programs that serve as alternatives to prosecution. Cook County's Democratic state's attorney, Eileen O'Neill Burke, pushed legislators to expand the programs to include a more streamlined opportunity for their participants to obtain a firearm owner's identification, or FOID, card — the form required by the Illinois State Police for state residents to be allowed to legally own guns. The legislation would apply to people eligible for placement in the diversion programs and charged with gun crimes designated as Class 4 felonies, offenses that can carry one-to-three-year prison sentences but are the least severe level of felonies. Under the measure, a person charged with those low-level gun felonies would be able to apply for a FOID card once receiving a court order attesting to their completion of a diversion program, enabling the state police to perform a background check as part of the process of granting them the card. Once the felony case is officially dropped, the state police would grant that individual a FOID card if they pass the background check, the measure would allow. As it stands now, state police can't start the process for someone requesting a FOID card until their felony case is dropped, which may not be until well after the applicant completes the diversion program. The legislation is aimed at helping people like Shamyia Phillips, who was arrested in November 2023 on a felony gun charge. When police stopped her in a car that she said had been reported stolen, she had a handgun in her purse that she said she purchased legally in Texas, an open-carry state where she lived for a time. Unaware of Illinois' gun laws, she didn't have a FOID card or concealed carry license. 'It was just to protect me and my daughter,' said Phillips, a 26-year-old single mother. 'I wasn't using it to harm anyone or anything.' Unemployed at the time, Phillips said she entered a diversion program that helped her get a job and led to the charges being dropped. Seeking work in the security field, she plans to apply for a FOID card and concealed carry license. During a visit to the Tribune Editorial Board earlier this month, O'Neill Burke said one factor motivating the legislation was that during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were major delays for people applying for FOID cards through the state police. At the same time a lot of people acquired guns illegally because of fears stoked by a nationwide rise in violent crime. 'So, we were putting people in a catch-22,' said O'Neill Burke, who took office at the end of last year. 'Suddenly we had this large population of otherwise law-abiding people who are now charged with a Class 4 felony.' The solution, she said, is part of her office's balanced approach toward gun prosecutions: Prioritizing gun cases that involve the use of 'switches,' rapid-fire devices that can convert semiautomatic guns to fully automatic use, while at the same time ensuring that others entitled to have firearms are following the law. 'It's two very different approaches to gun crimes because they're treated very differently under the law,' O'Neill Burke said. 'The goal is to get as many people into compliance with the regulation as possible, while at the same time addressing the very real threat that automatic weapons pose.' More than 2.4 million Illinoisans have FOID cards. The state police has 20 employees processing FOID applications while additional employees handle applications for concealed carry licenses, which allow for a gun owner to carry a firearm outdoors. The state police said the same participants in diversion programming who may be eligible for a FOID may also acquire a CCL, though the qualifications are different. The state police said system improvements over the years have brought down processing times for new FOID applications to an average of about 12 days. During the pandemic, staffing ranged between 17 and 28 employees dedicated to FOID card application processing, in addition to temporary contractors, the state police said. In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, the state police processed 190,693 new FOID applications with an average processing time of 83 days, the state police said. The following year, 292,523 new FOID applications were processed. The final amendment of the diversion program legislation passed through the Senate by a 55-0 vote on May 31, the final scheduled day of session. The bill was approved in the House on May 23 by a vote of 97-11. When state Sen. Elgie Sims presented the final amendment on the Senate floor on May 31, he said there was a 'unique set of proponents to the bill.' In addition to the Cook County state's attorney's office, those proponents included the Cook County public defender's office, Illinois State's Attorneys Association, Illinois State Rifle Association and Gun Violence Prevention PAC. Sims, the bill's main Senate sponsor, said in an interview that the legislation is meant to help people caught up in the criminal justice system for nonviolent gun infractions so they don't get arrested again. 'We're trying to make sure that for somebody who might have a firearm in their possession, but they've gone through the process, they've taken the steps to atone for the mistake (so) that they are able to get their FOID card,' the Chicago Democrat said. 'It was to encourage people to be law-abiding gun owners.' Among other supporters of the bill was the Gun Violence Prevention PAC, which works to stem gun violence and illegal gun access. John Schmidt, an executive board member of the group, said there's room for a balanced approach within firearm policies to respect the rights of people wanting to own a gun legally. 'G-PAC works to keep illegal guns out of the hands of unqualified owners. But we have no trouble making common ground to support laws that enable people who successfully complete diversion programs to resume their right like other citizens to own lawful guns,' said Schmidt, a former U.S. associate attorney general. Republican legislators have long accused the Democratic majority of infringing on the Second Amendment right to bear arms through laws such as the 2023 assault weapons ban, which remains under court challenge. In the new gun bill, many GOP lawmakers supported the Democrats' legislative fix around diversion programming and FOID cards. Senate Republican leader John Curran, a former assistant Cook County state's attorney, agreed with Sims' rationale behind it. 'Ultimately, if someone's going to possess a gun again down the road, they should have a FOID in Illinois. It's the law of the land. So, we should encourage that behavior. This bill does,' said Curran, of Downers Grove. State Rep. John Cabello of Machesney Park was one of 11 House members to vote against the new legislation. A Republican who has worked as a police detective, he said he's been supportive of diversion programs but was skeptical of the Democrats' motivation for this legislation. 'What they're doing in Springfield, is they take baby steps to what their final goal is. What is their final goal? Is their final goal to make sure that we can't charge felons with possession of a (gun) any longer?' Cabello said. The legislation would apply to various diversion programs for people arrested on Class 4 felony gun charges, including Cook County prosecutors' first-time weapon offense program. People charged with such crimes are eligible for the diversion program only if they've gotten permission from a judge, with the consent of the state's attorney. O'Neill Burke's office said Cook County had roughly 2,800 Class 4 felony gun cases last year of which defendants in some 1,200 were put in gun diversion programs, most of them in the first-time weapon offense program. The program was initially established by the General Assembly in 2018 as a pilot and limited to defendants under 21, while also being part of a law allowing for penalty enhancements for certain people convicted of repeatedly carrying illegal firearms. But in the last several years, especially with the makeup of the General Assembly becoming more progressive, lawmakers let the penalty enhancement provisions expire, made the diversion program permanent and removed its age restriction. Participation in the program could last from six months to two years, according to the law, and to stay in the program, the defendant must not break any laws or use any guns or other weapons. The law doesn't allow someone in the program if they've been arrested for a felony gun crime that was committed during the commission of a violent offense; if they've been previously convicted or placed on probation or conditional discharge for any violent crime; if they've completed the program in the past; or if they have an existing order of protection issued against them. Cook County Public Defender Sharone R. Mitchell Jr. said the legislation's emphasis on obtaining FOID cards is an acknowledgement by the government that the people who often get in trouble for illegal gun possession are not dangerous criminals. But if they have a blemish on their record like a Class 4 felony, that could hurt their chances to get a job and potentially be deprived of other opportunities. But Mitchell says many people might not acquire FOID cards or CCLs for a host of reasons, including ignorance of the law or a criminal conviction from decades ago preventing them from owning a gun. 'People's baseline need is to keep themselves safe and some individuals have made the decision in our community that carrying a gun is their only path toward that safety,' he said. 'People are making really tough decisions based upon safety.' Mitchell couldn't say whether the new legislation would increase awareness for the public to obtain FOID cards but said his office is hopeful the law helps change how illegal gun possession offenses are treated in the criminal justice system. 'Our hope is that this law is a first step, but that we take a more informed and measured approach to all gun possession cases,' he said.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Yahoo
Editorial: Eileen O'Neill Burke is a marvel so far as state's attorney. Her office needs more resources.
As last week ended, two events in Chicago underscored the deep challenges still facing this city when it comes to the most basic of human needs — our safety and security. Crosetti Brand on Thursday was found guilty by a jury (after just 90 minutes of deliberation) of stabbing 11-year-old Jayden Perkins to death as the boy tried to protect his mother from ex-boyfriend Brand, who was knifing her as well. Just hours later, Chicago police Officer Krystal Rivera, 36, was shot dead as she and other officers investigated a person believed to have a gun in Chatham on the city's South Side. The trauma and tragedy inherent in both stories was on our minds as we recalled our meeting earlier in the week with Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke. O'Neill Burke discussed her first six months on the job. She has wasted no time beginning to whip the nation's third-largest district attorney's office into shape after years of diminishment. Recruiting of new prosecutors has gone so well that the office has surpassed its salary allocation, she told us. But she told us something else during our conversation that was bracing indeed. As she was running for the office last year, O'Neill Burke said, 'I thought guns were the biggest problem. But it turns out domestic violence is.' In Cook County, 23 women have died allegedly at the hands of abusers just since O'Neill Burke took office in December. Twenty-three. Let that number sink in. Even as Laterria Smith, Jayden's mother, saw Brand face justice a little over a year after that horrific day, women aren't being adequately protected from the men in their lives who abuse them. Under O'Neill Burke, prosecutors already are making some progress on this front. The rate at which Cook County judges now are detaining those accused of domestic violence while they await trial has increased to 81% from around 50% before she took office, she told us. Part of the reason for the increase is a change in procedure. At O'Neill Burke's request, Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans granted her prosecutors rapid access to a far broader range of records on criminal defendants than had long been the case. So when assistant state's attorneys now stand before judges and request pretrial confinement, they have at their disposal records on defendants providing crucial context for judicial decisions that can mean life or death for victims. An example: Just after O'Neill Burke took office, one of her young prosecutors sought detention for a man accused of leaving gifts for his children at the doorstep of the mother, who'd obtained an order of protection against him. That by itself seemed innocuous, and thus the prosecutor (who did not have easy access to the explanatory data) was unable to explain to the judge why the office had decided to seek confinement. It turned out the father had previously abducted the children, taking them to Indiana, and they'd been traumatized, O'Neill Burke told us. But the prosecutor didn't know that while standing before the judge, who to his credit took it upon the court to look up the back story. O'Neill Burke said she's fixed that problem by improving prosecutors' access to the information they need. The change in procedure was a relatively straightforward fix, but far more needs to be done to give O'Neill Burke the tools to keep turning her office around. And for those items, funding will be needed. We were surprised to learn that the state's attorney's office has no automated case-management system to speak of. For felonies, there's a system created in-house more than a decade ago on a platform that no longer is tech-supported. Assistant state's attorneys must input into spreadsheets procedural developments in each of their many cases — something prosecutors themselves don't have the time to do and paralegals ought to be handling. Oh, except the office has no paralegals. An opinion piece we published recently took O'Neill Burke to task for removing information the office had been posting online under her predecessor, Kim Foxx, on the status of felony cases. O'Neill Burke said she did so because much of the information was incomplete, incorrect or unverifiable due to the technology deficiencies. Transparency, of course, remains important. The state's attorney's office, which has a current-year budget of $187 million, badly needs a bona fide case-management system, and that will cost millions. Money well spent, we say, because the public would have access to this important information, and the office itself could make better decisions about resource allocation and — critically — move criminal cases through the process much faster than the current woefully slow pace of prosecutions. But that's not all. If anything, we were more shocked to hear that our local prosecutor's office essentially has no internal forensics unit. Cook County is virtually the only major urban local prosecution office in the nation without one. In this day and age, DNA analysis, drug content analysis and of course fingerprint analysis are integral components of most felony cases. The office currently has a single scientist handling its forensics needs. Veteran lawyers with significant forensics-evidence experience left during the previous administration, we're told. An effective forensics team needs to be established as soon as possible. O'Neill Burke will submit her first budget request in July to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. The two have a less-than-warm relationship; Preckwinkle staunchly backed O'Neill Burke's Democratic primary opponent last year. O'Neill Burke acknowledged the friction to us, but also expressed admiration for Preckwinkle's administrative skills and professionalism. For the sake of the well-being of all Cook County residents, Preckwinkle should do her part to help O'Neill Burke modernize the office. That returns us to the tragic killing of Officer Rivera, who'd been on the Chicago police force for four years and is survived by a young daughter. Police Superintendent Larry Snelling told reporters that Rivera had processed two guns she'd removed from Chicago's streets on Thursday before yet another gun took her life that night. O'Neill Burke pledged during her campaign to seek pretrial detention for anyone caught with an assault weapon, and that includes handguns with contraptions converting them to automatic firearms. She's been true to her word. And anecdotally, she says, word is reaching the streets. There's no statistic that definitively captures the deterrent effect of believing consequences will be severe for violating gun laws, and O'Neill Burke doesn't toot her own horn like other local politicians when it comes to the current improving crime stats. But she deserves her share of the credit. Now Cook County should get her what she needs to be even more effective. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@
